Search This Blog

Posts

Call it what you will, but I think Indians are not adequately appreciative of the lurking dangers that lie ahead.

The United States has a population of just over 300 million. India's population is soon going to reach 1,200 million.

United States has a land area that is three times as much as India's. I do not think anyone will disagree that this is the most important 'natural reource' that a nation needs.

So, let's do some basic maths.

Four times as many people are crammed into an area that is one-third as much.

If my arithmatic is accurate, that simply means a population density 12 times that of the United States.

So, considering the land surface of India, it should be having a population of 300 million to start with — equal to that of the United States. But even then India will have three times the population density of the United States.

So, to match the population density of the U.S., India's population will need to go down to 100 mil…

There's talk of giving death sentence to the perpetrator. That's a question which might seem an easy one on the face of it but when you delve into it, there are complexities involved.

The obvious danger of course is misuse. Same goes for how stringent punishment for dowry related torture should be. One can think of the maximum punishment to deter people from committing these heinous crimes.

But in today's society, there's scope for people using these laws to blackmail innocent people.

When there's not a shred of doubt about the fact that such a crime has taken place, then there is really no problem with the death sentence.

India really needs some strict laws and some people to be punished in an exemplary fashion.

The desire to take short cuts in life needs to be curbed among the people of India. In a country that is beset with so many intractable problems and so much economic disparity, this desire is particularly …

I have no hesitation with agreeing with the above contention. The ease with which people cope with tragedy is commonplace ... it would have some relation to various factors such as how 'important' financially the deceased person may have been to the grieving one.

In India certainly, it's imperative to demonstrative one's grief in a very public and melodramatic fashion. I am one who would prefer to keep grief private.

In traditional societies such as India, society plays a part in how anyone copes with a death. There are a bunch of meaningless rituals which must be complied with at all costs.

People of India being exceptionally strong believers in a benevolent God take solace in ascribing some one's death to His inscrutable will and better judgmen…

1. Tiger didn't murder anyone, did he?2. He didn't inspire some suicide bombers, did he?3. He didn't steal taxpayers' money, did he?4. He didn't set up phony financial schemes to cheat people, did he?5. He didn't rape or molest women or minors, did he?6. He didn't pontificate about leading a 'moral' life or doing 'God's work,' did he?7. He didn't point fingers at others or blame others, did he?8. He didn't act as if he was entitled to anything, did he?9. He didn't break the law, did he?10. Unless of course sex between two consenting adults means breaking the law.

India's Ministers and Members of Parliament are extremely proficient in this. They are aware that most of India's voting electorate is illiterate and too worried about earning their daily bread to follow the goings on in a parliament in distant Delhi that is light years removed from the reality of their lives.

So, the lawmakers do not mind framing and passing into law a bill that offers more free airline tickets to their own relatives as well as 'companions.' It's an interesting word to include in the bill. It seems our members of Parliament have become quite modern and want to take along on their free junkets people who may not be their spouses or children or relatives.

Case in point: Suppose I am a powerful MP or better still, a minister, I might get to become 'friends' with models or other members of the Page 3 fraternity. So, when I go on vacations to Goa or elsewhere at the taxpayer's expense, I would also like to take along the beautiful female '…

Being a regular user of amlodipine and atenolol for controlling high blood pressure, I am somewhat aware of the power of prescription drugs.

I had carelessly taken more than what my doc had prescribed for a few days and my blood pressure went sharply in the other direction — from too high to too low.

Hollywood has seen some untimely deaths due to misuse of prescription drugs. Last year saw the death of Heath Ledger and this year has seen the death of Brittany Murphy. Michael Jackson's is a somewhat different story, I guess.

So, the lesson to learn is to beware of prescription drugs — these are not things to play with. These powerful substances can be extremely helpful to the body but when not used properly, they can cause havoc as well.

All religions are old belief systems and naturally reflect their age. All religions need to change to keep up with changing times and advances in human civilization.

There's no way that one can cling on to ways of life propounded in texts written thousands of years ago — no matter how suited those ways of life might have been to the times and climes they were written in.

Let's face it: religions came into being as humans tried to make sense of a perplexing universe. There was no science then. So, religions provided simplistic explanations for natural phenomena. Pretty much all religions have concepts of heaven and hell. They talk about living a pious or righteous life here on Earth so that one gets to go to heaven in the afterlife instead of getting punishment in hell for eternity.

This is certainly as silly as it sounds. I don't know how people can believe in childish stuff such as this.

Americans are having to scrimp … saving quarters for diapers … Americans luckily have access to a few social safety nets provided by the government such as Medicaid, unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc. Then, non-governmental organizations and religious charities pitch in to provide whatever help they can.

The effects of this prolonged recession are definitely going to be far-reaching on the psyche of those who will have gone through long periods of unemployment. This is happening after some seven decades. So, very few are alive today who had experienced it the last time it happened.

The last recession was followed by an economic boom aided by both government policies as well as the ‘martial’ nations of Europe who still wanted to fight one last great, climactic mother of all wars after the Great War.

The lessons for India? I think the message is a very sobering one.

If a nation as advanced and prosperous can suffer such havoc from economic cycles of boom and bust, what chance does In…

I admire the visionary thinking behind 2012. It's easy to dismiss it as typical Hollywood production-line stuff but I think the movie has a message if only people are willing to ponder.

Of course, the movie could have done without all the razzmatazz: the special effects and the biblical allusions. But that's perhaps necessary to engage an audience with very short attention spans.

I would perhaps have preferred a movie that debated not only this particular possibility that might put a spanner in all our corporate-ladder-climbing careers but other possibilities as well. But may be that's up to Seth Sostak and Discvoery Channel.

The world may not quite turn turtle come 2012 and the Mayans may not quite have gotten it right — I certainly hope so — but there are dangers on the horizon for humanity. This permanent fiesta can't last. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, as Newton's Third Law says.

Most of the people on the planet live engrossed in the occurences of their daily lives. Without giving much thought to abstract issues.

Then we have other people who devote their lives to the same abstract issues. I have particularly great respect for scientists/physicists. Where would humanity be, or rather how poor would humanity be without the contributions of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, and so many others like these.

There are great scientists in the biological sciences who have found cures for diseases and contributed so much to our understanding about our own selves.

Great scientists in the various physical sciences who have helped invent so many of the tools that have helped improve the quality of our lives.

And we take all of these things for granted ...

And continue to live in our tiny, little rat-holes.

It's like much of humanity is like parasites that lives off of the great…

The way Tiger Woods is being hounded, it would appear as if he were an elected official who had been caught with his hand in the till.

But this is not the case. So, why all this fuss? Why do people want to foist greatness on someone?

Tiger's genius lies in how he can hit the golf ball. Nothing has changed on that front.

His golf skills enabled him to earn millions. His skills are exceptional. So, is his wealth.

Why do people expect him to live an ordinary life like the rest of us ... the no-skills folks? What is the purpose of slogging so hard and having all that money if you can't go out and spend it the way you like?

Why do people expect that everyone will accept the moribund rules of our society? Let's face it: the rules and regulations that govern our society are pretty old-fashioned and not really suited to our times and realities. If people are not brave enough to dump those rules in their entirety, that's people's problems.

Theodore Roosevelt's lasting legacy as a President is perhaps what he did to preserve and protect the extraordinary wilderness of America for posterity. The role he played in bringing to an end the war between Russia and Japan is open to interpreations. It may have indirectly led to Pearl Harbor.

Woodrow Wilson's exertions in forming the League of Nations are known. However, the eventual outcome of that endeavor might have been war rather than peace.

Nobody can argue with the true greatness of some of the other winners: King or Mandela. Gandhi of course remains a jarring omission from that roster of winners.

But overall, if one thinks of all the winners over more than one hundred years, does the list comprise of mostly great men and women with a few ordinary folks, or is the list mostly populated by ordinary people and even some very controversial winners such as Henry Kissinger?

In a hundred years from now, Obama would become a footnote in the story of human civilization and we w…

India is a nation of meaningless rituals. Indians tend to their risible rituals with the utmost devotion so as to avoid the difficult task of having to think.

Indians like to celebrate various yearly rituals ... of both happy as well as sad occasions. One such recent anniversary was that of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Not long before that, there was the anniversary of Indira Gandhi's assassination. Then, people also remembered the Babri Masjid demolition. A more recent tragedy from Mumbai a year ago was also piously observed. Even Sachin's playing for 20 years occasioned an outpouring of admiration and adulation.

Sadly, I think people don't have any sense of proportion at all. Otherwise, we would not have seen the absurd eulogizing of Sachin.

Public outrage about the death of a model fortunatly led to the incarceration of a playboy-turned-murderer. Similar outrage is unfortunately completely absent when the dead happen to be the ordinary people of India. This dichotomy is deeply …

I didn't know that Tiger Woods was the first billionaire sportsperson of the world.One doesn't become a billionaire without being extraordinarily driven.Being rich has its advantages ... just as being powerful has its.History tells us that Moghul Emperors had many wives in their harems — one of the perks of being an Emperor. Even some present-day kings continue to follow in their footsteps.Today though, money mostly has become equivalent to power.So. those with money can afford to lead rather laissez faire lifestyles.I don't see any problems with that — as long as they don't preach and pretend to be modern day Mahatma Gandhis.I am only thinking of how Donald Trump would react to Tiger's troubles: he would remind everyone again with his signature style how crazy it was not to have "pre-nuptials."http://betting.betfair.com/sports/oddly-enough/the-10-richest-sports-stars-in-the-world-and-what-160309.htmlOne's respect for the genius of Tiger on the course…

A recent survey shows that China is home to nearly half a million millionaires … I don’t know but presume that these folks are dollar millionaires …

I wonder how many similar millionaires are there in India …

On a different note, lots of folks got married yesterday including an accidental celebrity who goes by the name of Shilpa Shetty. I don’t know how much the rituals and customs that are associated with marriage really mean to these folks …

It’s good to see people choosing to live life on their terms like Kareena and Saif Ali Khan.

Also, Lara Dutta saying that she’s ‘seeing’ Mahesh Bhupati but not only him …

Sushmita Sen has always taken the road less traveled …

So also Nandita Das.

When you learn about what Amelia Earhart had written when she got married … some 80 odd years ago, you realize how backwardish Indian mentalities are …

As we approach the one year mark of the attacks in Mumbai, quite predictably my prediction that nothing much will happen has come true.

I don't blame the government. There is really not much that the government could have done. Pakistan is a semi-failed state and the terrorists who attacked Mumbai might have originated in Pakistan but one can't consider the Pakistan state to be an accomplice in the attacks.

Pakistan is suffering copiously from terrorism on its own soil as terrorists mount ever more daring attacks against the Establishment, the ISI, etc.

The U.S. continues its drone attacks in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan which shows how much Pakistan has ceded its sovereignity to that country ...

Well, smoking, it seems, does have some benefits — it helps reduce weight gain.

Well, unfortunately, it seems women don't want to quit smoking as they fear that they will gain weight once they quit smoking!!!

And so researchers want to reassure them that it ain't so ...

Well, things are pretty bad for smokers in the Big Apple. In some aprtment complexes, you are not even allowed to smoke inside your own darned home!!!

Things haven't gotten that strident in my own country — they eventually might, but I should be 'old and dying' and dead by then. So, no worries ...

This also offers one more reason why I don't want to migrate to the U.S. — just admire them from afar ... also, one is not allowed to hang one's dirty linen outside which one can do perfectly legitimately here in India.

I was wondering what would happen when rice sells for a 100 rupees per kilo. Same goes for floud.

We have seen a steep rise in the prices of dal, vegetables, cooking oil, sugar, etc. People can cut back on their consumption of these cooking inputs. But what will happen when food staples become expensive themselves? Will people skimp on rice and rotis? Which is the same as going hungry.

The United Nations Population Fund has projected that India's population will be overtaking that of China by 2050 and then INDIA WILL BE NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD in population.

Certainly, this calls for celebration!!!

Even as other nations struggle with declining birth rates and shrinking populations, India continues to hold the fort on behalf of mankind quite valiantly ...

I say: Keep it up guys!!! The current reproductive generation has a challenge to live up to ... as our ancestors and forefathers were far more fecund in making babies than our generation.

We must take pledges to raise India's population figure to 200 crores as soon as possible. A hundred years ago, India's population would have been around 20 crores. So, a ten-fold increase would be a nice achievement.

Well, India's FIRST female prez. is going flying in a Sukhoi ... smacks of "me too" after Abdul Kalam did so some years ago.

Anyways, good for the 'morale' of the ladies in India, I guess ...

Meanwhile, in the 'personal' opinion of a senior Indian Air Force officer, it would be a bad 'investment' to train female fighter pilots as they will inevitably go on their 'maternity' leaves and the Govt. will be left holding the baby!!!

Seems quite a reasonable thing to say to me ... but the statement has created some controversy quite expectedly ... plain speaking is not quite appreciated in these politically correct times ...

Of course, one has to be careful about what the report really talks about and the methodology it used to reach its finding.

"Food insecurity" in America has got to be vastly different than the kind of endemic, gross undernutrition which is a daily reality for hundreds of millions of people in India and many countries in Africa.

The difference is this: it's considered to be an issue in America while in India poverty is a fact of life almost on a par with a rule of nature like the Sun rising every morning from the East.

Uncle Sam also has deep pockets and so hands out food stamps to those who are eligible ...

Well, that's disappointing. At least, would be to some people ... people who are in it to reduce weight, look slim, etc. But if people look for short term gains from exercising, they are — as it were — looking to make a quick buck in my opinion.

The New York Times has a story about how exercising doesn't necessarily lead to weight loss and why ...

One has to be able to take into account the numerous other benefits of exercising ... not just weight loss.

The human body is fundamentally designed to work!!! It's as simple as that.

The muscles that we have are meant to be put to their test and we are definitely not designed through evolution to slouch all day in front of a computer.

Those who might feel disheartened when exercising doesn't lead to weight loss would do well to consider what would have been the case if they had not been exercising ... they would have been fatter with overall,…

Personally, it makes me feel less tired and more active during the day, I guess ...

I mean, we all do such sedantary jobs now-a-days ... which primarily involves sitting in front of a computer the whole day.

In the old days — and to a certain extent even today — people would spend some time in front of an image of some Hindu deity in the morning and do some chants or something ... that would a regular way of doing worship ... In the modern era, it's as if we have all now decides to 'worship' the computer deity and do so by sitting in front of the 'God' the whole day!!!

I thought to jot down a few thoughts on some of the folks I admire ...

Jawaharlal Nehru — Some people are skeptical about Nehru. They say: “what did Nehru do?” Often, of course, they tend to have minimal knowledge of history. I happen to be truly a ‘student’ of history as I never studied it as part of a curriculum but have tried to read some of it as an adult. As I try to learn a little more about the man, I realize how ignorant I was and my admiration for his increases by leaps and bounds.

It’s easy to be skeptical … particularly in the modern Indian context where people in public life are so mired in corruption and all sorts of unethical practices. But one should not take one’s skepticism too far and latch on to some minor human imperfection of a man like Nehru and proceed to pass judgment on him on the basis of that slight imperfection. Well, I don’t know if I ever will get the time to get to read enough about Nehru and by Nehru (remembering that he was a prolific writer as well) to …

I happen to be reading Nehru's biography by M. J. Nehru at the moment ... at least, I try to. And my respect and admiration for him grows.

I wish Indians would imbibe more of the character and characteristics of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Today is his birthday.

When you compare the amount of media coverage provided to Sachin's 'anniversary' vis-a-vis that provided to Nehru's birthday, one would think that Sachin has contributed more to building modern India than Chacha Nehru. Of course, one guy is dead while the other is a contemporary. But having some sense of history helps when one is taking steps into the future.

The hero-worshipping continues ... The "Little Master" of India has completed 20 years on the international cricket stage and the media is tripping over itself devoting tons of newprint covering this 'milestone.'

Sachin is described as somone who is a nice human being, a gentleman, humble, great friend, husband, father, son, brother, mentor, teacher, student, etc. etc.

Cancer is a strange beast ... there is still an enormous amount of misinformation and fear in the public's mind about the disease and what it is. Some people have an irrational amount of fear of the disease and think that it's a sort of a death sentence. That's far from the truth. 80 percent of patients suffering from childhood leukemia are cured.

Enormous strides have been made in the treatment of other forms of cancer such as Chronic Myelogeous Leukemia (CML) and prostate cancer and breast cancer.

It remains a difficult challenge nevertheless for medical science. Our increasing insights into the structure of the human genome will help tame a few more types of cancer over the years.

But ultimately cancer will win. It's simply a basic premise of the design …

Researchers have come up with definitive findings that babies cry differently depending on their mother tongue!!!

And I thought all babies cry the same way ...

The logic behind this, according to the scientists who spent hours listening to French and German babies crying, is that babies listen to their moms' voices while in the womb and the baby brains are smart enough to adjust themselves accordingly so that when the time comes, the babies will be able to learn their mother tongue rather efficiently.

Seymour Hersh has an enviable knack for generating controversy with everything that he writes. May be, he has what might be called the 'Hersh Touch', a latter day version of the Midas Touch.

His New Yorker article about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal has predictably generated strong reactions from Pakistan.

Well, what can one expect if Hersh is basically saying that there's a secret argument between the Pentagon and the Pakistan Army whereby if things get out of hand in Pakistan and the Taliban are on the verge of getting hold of nukes, then Special Forces from the United States will swoop in and "secure" the assets.

It would be quite something for one nation to share the exact locations (Bunker No. 9) where each component of a discombobulated nuclear device is located with another nation no matter how friendly that nation might be.

On a related note, I recently read some scholarly piece about the history of India's nuclear posture ... how it slowly evolved from …

"A start-up company from the Seattle area won $900,000 on Friday in a NASA contest to build a miniature prototype of a machine that could one day climb from Earth to outer space," according to a New York Times article here ...

I was thinking of N. R. Narayan Murthy's daughter who used to work at Siderian Ventures before her recent marriage.

She is apparently worth about 1,600 crores on account of her holding in Infosys.

Narayan Murthy, being the good guy that he is, has given himself the least amount of wealth in his family — doling out more to his wife and son and daughter.

As I was saying though, I think it's a tough spot to be in — being the daughter of a rich dad.

I mean, they must be having to make some difficult choices in life, I believe ...

For example, when it comes to choosing a life partner, they must be weighing their options ... on the one hand, they might like to hitch up with a rich guy who, being rich himself, would not drool over her net worth.

On the other hand, she might choose to opt for a non-so-rich guy ... but John Galts and Howard Roarks only exist in the realm of fiction...

I was just thinking about Nehru's famous last will and testament where he poetically talks about wanting some of his ashes to be mixed with the Ganga river at Allahbad — something a traditional, ritualistic Hindu would dearly love to do.

And this was the "agnostic visionary of modern India" who expressed this wish. And of course he opted for a typical Hindu cremation and nothing else.

When I think of myself, I too find that cremating a dead body is a logical thing to do rather than burying it like Christians. And I am supposed to be a staunch atheist.

I am wondering how much of my thinking is ultimately colored by the fact that I was born a 'Hindu' and how much by pure logic. The only logic that I can see to burning a dead body rather than burying it is this: when you bury a dead body, you are basically occupying a piece of ground for ever ... and to think that our time on this planet began when we were born ... we didn't e…

The Affordable Healthcare for America Act has been narrowly passed by the House of Representatives.

A milestone moment in the history of healthcare legislation in the United States.

The Bill is of course famously 1990 pages long and I am wondering if I can go through the entirety of it.

I don't think I will find the time to do that ... may be I am unaware of some secret formula which would allow me to digest the bill in its entirety in a fraction of the time period which I would ordinarily require.

After all, there is a lady who is reading a book a day in the United States and documenting her exploits on a blog here ... http://readallday.org/

The denoument of this Bill is not yet clear.

The healthcare system is too vast and too complex and the interested parties are too numerous and the numerous lobbyists would have spread their tentacles too deeply into the law making process to allow Obama to make a clean break from the status quo.

Indians who belong to the middle and upper classes are all too happy at the way things are.

They are happy with the situation where there are really only a very few people who are wealthy in this country and the rest are in wretched poverty. This, of course, serves the wealthy as they can employ the poor to take care of their numerous needs ... there's someone to drive the car, someone to babysit, someone to wash the clothes, someone else to do the dishes, someone to wash the car, someone to do the gardening, someone else to do the cooking, and may be someone to bring the vegetables from the market as well ...

Rich Indians live a royal life in many ways. And they go outside of India for holidays and come back and talk about how nice and wonderful things are abroad and how wrteched things are in India.

Then there are others like Arundhati Roy who like to point out the wretchedness of life that is the reality for many Indians. People like her want …

It's interesting that a 4,000-crore scam involving former chief ministers doesn't cause too much heartburn in the public's imagination.

It's perhaps only the media that starts creating a flutter as it smells something to increase TRPs.

These scams have unfortunately become all too common.

This particular one comes so soon after the one involving telecom licenses.

People have become jaded with these all-too-numerous scams.

People don't see that much can be done about these and so have come to expect these as the natural order of things. Indians, as it is, are rather fatalistic and like to leave things to a "higer power."

So, I guess one can say: "even this shall pass." And the Koda affairs would not be even a footnote in the history of modern India when historians write it.

I guess one can still feel happy about this broken state of governance and a less-than-perfect form of democracy.

I remember Lee Iaccoca's autobiography where he he remembers landing at the train station and asking for the direction to Detroit and someone telling him: "Go West young man."

Times have changed drastically since those days when the automobile industry was the throbbing heart of a vibrant manufacturing economy.

Today, we live in a world and the services sector dominates and the knowledge economy is where everyone wants to be. Old fashioned factory townships with assembly lines manufacturing goods that everyone wants to have ... that has pretty much shifted out of advanced economies like the United States to developing economies like China and India.

To a large extent, that's a positive development for these countries as basically manufacturing jo…

It is not so funny to see the messy happenings in the Supreme Court where two justices have a financial interest in the case they are hearing pertaining to the Ambanis. Even the judges' family members work for companies that have links to the Ambanis.

It would appear that the Ambanis have spread their tentacles to every vein of India, as it were.

This is sad. In the U.S., there are strict ethical standards which judges have to maintain. The President's wealth is of course managed by a blind trust for the duration of his presidency so that he is not tempted to take decisions that would benefit him personally.

India is a long distance away from formulating the required rules and regulations and practicing them.

But the opinion piece columns in the New York Times as well as the Wall Street Journal were analyzing the results of the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia and a few Congressional elections and it was interesting to see the contrasting conclusions that they drew from the same results.

While Obama supporters like Gail Collins and Maurren Dowd described the results as being not connected to Obama's presidency and local in nature and therefore having no bearing at all on Obama's performance or lack of it, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan describes these results as a wake up call for the Obama White House.

It seems to me that the results might be described using that rather ungainly phrase: "anti-incumbency" factor.

That's a very popular phrase during elections in India when the voters find an outlet to show their anger at the government and throw out whoever is in power.

I think it might be the same in the U.S. as well where lobbyists have take…

Who should be the one-down batsman?Questions of such grave import!!!I say, what about Amisha Patel as first-down?I think Rakhi Sawant would do a terrific job as opener!!!What a waste!!! I can't understand for the life of me how can anyone watch this non-sensical waste of time called Cricket ... I myself of course have spent enough minutes and hours and days and months and years passionately following this most idyllic of sports.But there's a time for everything in life.There's a time for cricket even.But I can't imagine how middle-aged people can waste their time watching cricket and not regret it ...I wish I could do so much more in the short life that I have been given on this Earth ...I wish I could better my guitar skills.I wish I could improve my Oracle and Java skills.I wish I could read more books ... novels and biographies, etc.I wish I could write more ... for fun and for money.There is just SO MUCH to learn in this short life.I hope to become an amateur astro…

I recently had a dream where I refused to follow some stupid ritual which occurs when somebody dies ...

in my case, my father had died. And imagine what! I refused to follow the herd and said 'No' to everyone including my father !!!

Even my father failed to persuade me that I should follow the stupid rituals which were taking place when he died ... and then the news of my ritual reached the PM who sort of belonged to an area nearby and so he came and tried to persuade me as well but I refused him as well. As far as I can understand about the sudden appearance of the PM, I think that happened because I had just seen a discussion on NDTV about the legacy of Indira Gandhi. This was an episode of We The People hosted by Barkha Dutt ... who happens to be a competitor of mine ...

It's a bit perplexing to see so much coverage being provided to stars' birthdays ... not to mention other aspects of their lives such as their love affairs, marriages, divorces and what not!

This is the kind of brainless entertainment that people prefer and enjoy instead of "serious" stuff.

Who wants to understand the complexities of space exploration when one can simply enjoy some gossip about the latest twists and turns in some star's love life?

Who bothers about the complexities of biological sciences and the complex nature of the battles that scientists are fighting with diseases such as cancer and AIDS? Better to just listen to the sacharine sweet advice of some God man who advises that all is well with the world and there's an Almighty and benevolent and watchful God watching over all our actions.

I wish of course that people would tire of inanities some day and focus on the real issues and realize that our destiny is shaped by the actions we take and is no…

We — not to mention the media — tend to overuse the 'historic' word all too often and thereby have devalued it quite a bit. I think Obama's win was one of those occasions that truly deserves this epithet.

We humans are at a stage in our evolution when our ethnic, national, racial, etc. identities mean a lot to us. We have not yet learnt to transcend these narrow definitions of who we are. In India, of course, we still continue to cling — like our lives depended on this — to our religions, our caste, and sub-castes and what not.

And so the media will predictably spend hours discussing Obama's successes and failures in these past 365 days. Perhaps in a set-up as complex as that prevailing in the United States, it's not much that a President can do. Crises of course present opportunities. FDR was a "war President" who rose to the multiple challenges that he was presented with. Lincoln of course shin…

India is becoming rich. At least, the Government of India is. It's out buying gold from the IMF. 200 tonnes might seem like a lot of gold. Now, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has 700 tonnes of the yellow metal in its possession. But if you try to put that into perspective by taking into account the total population of India, you realize that it's not that much. Assuming a population figure of one billion, 700 tonnes equates to 0.7 grams for every Indian. Similarly, a population figure of 1.1 billion means some 0.63 grams of gold for every Indian. Also, a population figure of 1.2 billion translates to 0.58 grams of gold for every Indian. Well, you can check that out yourself. My arithmetic might be wrong.

Another instance of security overkill. What is the price of the life of an Indian? Not much, it would seem.

This day brings news of another man dying because of the security bandobast surrounding the visit of the Indian PM. I had the opportunity to see this first hand in my home town once when the then PM was there for an election rally ... may be in 1996 ... I don't quite remember now. The PM was of course the chanakya of Indian politics P. V. Narasimha Rao. The reality on the ground might have been more complex than the facts reported in the papers. In New Delhi, of course, residents are used to it. Even I have on occasion had to suffer because the PM's cavalcade happened to be passing by ... It seems like an enjoyable tamasha when that happens ... you just have to cool your heels for a while ... assuming of course that the Sun is not in full blaze and you weren't going anywhere in a hurry.

In India, of course, appointments are 'flexible.' Everyone would understand…

That's how I would describe the phenomenal capacity of Indians to have babies.

I wonder if Indians are just stupid or there is more to it than meets the eye ... something like that saying ... "the meek shall inherit the Earth."

I think there are ways in which India's strength in numbers might her well. But, mostly I think India's burgeoning population is India's biggest problem rather than its biggest strength.

Fast breeding nations of the third world such as India and China are plaining helping bring the standard of living down for the whole world.

The key to world prosperity and the progress of human civilization lies not in being a leadeing breeder ... because then we would need to compete with other animals and they might in fact beat us hands down. The decisive advantage humans enjoy is not even brute, muscle strength which other species possess in far more abundance than us.

What provides humans our unique survival advantage is our brain power and that has n…

People in affluent societies and rich people in poor countries indulge in this.

This is even considered a sort of therapy. I think therapy is close to the truth. People who need to go shopping are definitely not happy with the life that they have to lead otherwise.

People are probably trying to escape the drudgery that their life/job otherwise is.

When someone buys a new shirt/trouser or shoes or watch or some other gear, they are looking for something new to have a little sense of excitement in their boring lives.

It is interesting to see the emergence of this shopping culture in the New India and the New Generation of Indians take to it with gusto. This is old hat in the West of course and people there are more or less tired of or jaded with this form of therapy and looking for something else in its place ...

I am wondering about this "relevant" issue as an Indian. For Indians, life is basically doing things as per predefined "rules" instituted by "sages" and "wise men" from time immemorial.

Baiscally, it's a load of crap of course.

What is truly saddening is to observe the young generation that thinks it's so "modern" and "hip" behave in the same old asinine ways as their ancestors. I pity this pseudo-modern young generation ... it's of course frustrating as well to see these young chaps so unquestioningly accept such half baked ideas.

"Tradition" is this catch-all phrase that is used to include everything including religion and marriage rituals and birth rituals and death rituals and everything in between.

I would be truly amazed if youngsters really think that all these hand-me-down stuff must be correct just because everybody else is doing the same thing ...

At last, the Government has chosen to adopt the easy route of banning pre-paid mobile services in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This is such an asinine decision that it boggles ones mind.

Are we living in a democracy or what!

Just because a few individuals are using mobile phones to plan their anti-India activities, the Govt. thought it fit to issue a dictat that will inconvenience hundreds of thousands of innocent people going about their daily lives.

What do the ordinary people of J&K use their pre-paid connections for? I imagine they would use it for the same purposes as people anywhere else in the country would ... to enable families to stay closer and stay connected, to share the family gossip, youngsters of course would be using these connections to pursue their illicit love affairs, or secret love affairs, I should say, traders and small businessmen would be using phone connections to keep their ears close to the ground and be one up on the competition, the owner of an apple…

As far as the issue of bringing revolutionary change to Washington is concerned, that's a different issue ...

We live in this media saturated world where every little issue is maginfied out of all proportions. So, if anything truly revolutionary were to take place, people who are affected would react so vociferously to it that the media would project that as if Armageddon was at hand.

For example, I believe that "Wall Street" should be a backwater of America and the industrial heartland of Detroit and Flint and the many factory townships across Pennsylvania and the Mid-West should be the true prioneers and leaders.

She has talked about people becomeing "disenchanted" or "disheartened" with government. People do not think that the Government can make it better, she says. Also, the leaders are showing a mindless ... something akin to optimism, she continues.

Fascinating perspectives indeed. I am wondering what relevance do these have for Indians. If anyone thinks they are irrelevant, well, I would beg to differ.

I think all of us Indians can identify with the feeling of being "disheartened" with Government.

India, of course, has never been the "hope of the world," or the "savior of mankind," or the "strongest nation of the world."

But, the lesson to learn there is that we have to aspire to such things.

The travails of Wall Street forces one to think about some fundamental facts.

Is there any specific reason why bankers and other financial industry executives should be millionaires?The New York Times has an interesting analysis about the troubles of the financial industry here ...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/business/30norris.htmlHow much pay do doctors and teachers and research scientists in the physical and biological sciences earn?Does a person need millions of dollars of pay per year to maintain a good standard of living?How does society benefit by having some people who are spectacularly rich while others live in poverty?Do these millionaires contribute anything of value to society that would justify their earning those pay packets?Of course, in a free market economy, these are difficult choices to make ...But society can come to a consensus as to what are the really important activities that a society must engage itself in and what are not so important.I do not believe deri…

Sachi Mohanty

My favorite words at present: There are no lessons to be learnt, no
discoveries to be made, no solutions to offer. I find myself left with
nothing but a few random thoughts. One of them is that from up here I
can look back and see that although a human life is less than the blink
of an eyelid in terms of the universe, within its own framework it is
amazingly capacious so that it can contain many opposites. One life can
contain serenity and tumult, heartbreak and happiness, coldness and
warmth, grabbing and giving — and also more particular opposites such as
a neurotic conviction that one is a flop and a consciousness of success
amounting to smugness.

I think I am a born rebel or a subversive. I am definitely an atheist. I sometimes feel that in a country as suffocatingly religious as India, some of us have to go to the other extreme as a counterweight to all the religious blindness which is there.